Our full opinion on Free Internet Box

AdminFebruary 20, 2024

0 99 7 minutes read

Originally known under the code name Freebox V9, Freebox Ultra was slightly delayed by the operator in late January 2024. The launch was highly anticipated, and helped define Free’s vision for years to come. According to the operator, this new freebox is designed for the next ten years. Such a promise inevitably made us want to test it.

Freebox Ultra Technical sheet

Unlike previous generations, Free has only developed a new “server” box, meaning a box connected to the Internet and including a NAS function. To find a new player box, you still have to be patient. Meanwhile, Free offers Freebox Pop with this box and TV Player from the former Freebox Delta.

Freebox Ultra Server Internet

Qualcomm Networking Pro 820 SoC (Quad-Core A73 – 2.2 GHz)
NAS Storage Server (NVMe SSD Slot)
OLED control screen
USB-C Power Delivery (20V/60W)
Wi-Fi 7 (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz)
Ports:
- SFP fiber optic port
- SFP 10G LAN Port (LAN)
- 4 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports
- USB 3.0 port (USB Type-A)
- RJ11 (landline telephone connector)
On/Off button
11.9 x 23 x 6.5 cm

Note that this new freebox is fully compatible with the operator’s FTTH fiber optic network. This is the first time that an operator has dropped compatibility with the ADSL copper network.

Freebox Ultra (Server Ultra) was loaned by the operator as part of this test

Freebox Ultra Two offers

Freebox Ultra Free is offered in two packages: Freebox Ultra Essential and Freebox Ultra. In both cases, the tool is the same. So you get the Freebox Ultra server we’re testing here, a free 4K TV player and, on request, you can have a Wi-Fi 7 repeater and pocket Wi-Fi.

Still in similar terms, the two packages offer access to reduced rates on free mobiles, the free 5G subscription increases to 15.99 euros per month for 4 lines (9.99 euros per month during the first year).

Freebox Ultra Essentiel is offered for 39.99 euros per month for 12 months, then 49.99 euros per month. For its part, Freebox Ultra adds 10 euros more per month to its more premium offering, or 49.99 euros per month for the first year and 59.99 euros per month thereafter. This premium offer includes subscription to 50 TV channels including Netflix (standard with ads), Disney+ (standard with ads), Amazon Prime Video, Cafeyn and Canal+ live and Universal+ bouquet.

where to buy

Freebox Ultra Best Price?

Freebox Ultra server box

Let’s get to the heart of the issue with the new server. Free has gone back to a very simple design and has not partnered with big names in the field like Jasper Morrison for Freebox Delta or Philippe Starck for Freebox Revolution. Apart from the very compact appearance of the device, its functions have also been reduced.

There is no longer any question of becoming a home automation hub, at least for the moment, or consolidating hard drives to create a larger NAS. This last function is replaced by a small NVMe SSD slot on the bottom of the box, but it’s hard to imagine actually being able to replace one with the other at the cost of flash storage.

With this Freebox Ultra, Free doesn’t bother with all the frills, we focus on the essentials for an ISP. Very high throughput for wired LAN networks thanks to the 2.5 Gbit/s RJ45 port or 10 Gb/s SFP+ port and the latest generation three-band Wi-Fi 7 network.

Setup is very easy. A fiber cable connects to the indicated port, plugs into a USB-C power supply, and the FreeBox connects to the network. A small screen allows you to follow the start. It also allows access to some essential functions of Freebox, especially displaying QR codes to connect to Wi-Fi networks very easily.

A super fast connection

With Freebox Ultra, Freemarket offers fiber with symmetrical speeds of 8 Gbit/s for download and 8 Gbit/s for upload. This is unheard of, and it is much higher than the average subscriber speed in France.

An immediate benefit of such throughput is to enable bandwidth to be efficiently shared between many devices. So we can watch 4K movies together on the living room TV, download video games on PC or console, stream, send videos, etc.

However, this raises the question of compatibility with home equipment. To really benefit from 8 Gbit/s on one machine, you have to rework the installation. Indeed, on most PCs, an RJ45 port, when present, will be limited to 1 or 2.5 Gbit/s. Besides the wired network question, this also questions the PC hardware’s ability to keep up. If you download a file at a speed of 8 Gbit/s, i.e. 1 GB per second, you need a processor, RAM and storage medium capable of maintaining this speed.

We are essentially talking about a rather modern NVMe SSD here. And on the other side of the tunnel, we should succeed in finding services capable of providing such speed. It is the server of the data provider (Netflix, Steam, etc.) that can be the limiting factor here. It is the entire chain from source to machine that is needed

Freebox Ultra Our facility

We have published an article on the tools needed to take advantage of this very high speed on PC. For this test, we tried several solutions.

We first tested the QSFPTEK 10G network card (51 euros on Amazon). Like most cards in this market segment, it uses the Intel 82599EN chip. First problem: It doesn’t have native supported drivers under Windows. So you must plan to download and install the drivers from the Intel site. It is then necessary to manually install the drivers from Windows Device Manager, which displays the downloaded files.

We connected the network card via an SFP+ DAC fiber cable directly to a port provided for this purpose on the Freebox Ultra. This connection never works. It is difficult to know if the cable was faulty. Another comment on Amazon regarding the cable used shows an incompatibility with the Freebox Ultra. The Windows and Freebox interfaces don’t really help identify the problem. In both cases, the machines cannot detect any connection.

Another solution. We go through a 10G RJ45 network card. More precisely the TP-Link PCIe TX401 card (85 euros on Amazon). This solution also requires adding an SFP to RJ45 adapter (53 euros on Amazon) on the Freebox side. Here, you must use a simple copper RJ45 Ethernet cable (some 6 minimum) to connect the box and the network card. In our installation, this is the solution that works the first time. It must be said that RJ45 cables are much less fragile than fiber optic cables.

As you can see, in both cases, and just to connect one machine to Freebox, it takes a little less than 150 euros of investment.

Freebox Ultra flow tests

8 Gbit/s is here

We were able to test the promise of symmetrical speeds of 8 Gbit/s on our PC wired directly to the Freebox’s 10 Gbit/s SFP port. We installed the Speedtest app for Windows to conduct this test, as the service site does not allow such speeds to be obtained from the browser.

Speedtest is impressive // Source: Friendroid

Beyond this benchmark that allowed us to display a nice diagram, we couldn’t really reproduce this flow in real use. On services like Steam or others, speeds typically saturate around 100 MB/s, or 800 Mbit/s. We noted RAM and CPU saturation during these tasks. So the problem probably comes from our PC used during testing. It’s still a relatively recent and high-end PC (AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 16 GB DDR4 RAM).

In other words, unless you equip yourself with very high-end equipment, our report here is average and in line with what most users will encounter.

With FreeBox Ultra, your box and your internet line leap into the future, but the rest of the French infrastructure and your equipment remain stuck in 2024.

Wi-Fi 7

The Freebox Ultra is therefore the first box on the market to integrate Wi-Fi 7 – which is starting to appear on mobile devices. Thanks to the integration of three different frequency bands, it allows it to offer record speeds. In fact, we have not succeeded with our equipment in retrieving a signal capable of reaching the promised speed. Worse, we saw a drop in range and some disconnections with home automation devices (connected vacuum cleaners) compared to the Freebox Delta.

In terms of speed, with the iPhone 15 Pro set to Wi-Fi 6E, we measured 1.3 Gbit/s for both downstream and upstream speeds. Moving a bit further from the box, we drop down to around 800 Mbit/s. This remains perfectly adequate for use on smartphones or laptops.

Additionally, the Wi-Fi network is primarily managed by Freebox OS, which does not offer a smartphone interface, and not by the Freebox Connect mobile app. As a result, managing your network from a smartphone is difficult. The app mainly offers to change Wi-Fi network security key, display QR code, enable or disable Wi-Fi and some additional options (DHCP, port forwarding).

NAS and Freebox OS

Since the Freebox revolution, Free has offered a box management interface from the local network at mafreebox.freebox.fr. With Freebox Ultra, we start with Freebox OS 4.8.

From this interface, you will be able to manage Freebox and the local network, but also access the download service and manage NAS and virtual machines.

On the Freebox Ultra, it is necessary to install an NVMe SSD under the hood or connect an external hard drive via the USB port.

Once the hard drive is installed and detected, you can create a virtual machine from the interface. The machine will use a Qualcomm chip and part of the Freebox resources.

We ran tests on Speedtest from this virtual machine and found that throughput was limited to 2.5 Gbit/s. Internal connections to Freebox’s NAS and VM systems may be made over connections other than 10 Gbit/s ports.

The functions of Freebox OS stop there. With Freebox Ultra, being able to manage your home automation system is no longer a question. The new FreeBox marks a return to basics for Free: it’s network tools.